RESEARCH

Since we were sticking with the plane idea, I researched into ways we could make it work and not look cliché.

I found a video called Mid air emergency which shows the interior of an air plane and how it was developed using adobe after effects. Watching this video make me almost think that our idea was possible to recreate the space we wanted. The complications that came with this was

1. I didn't know how to use adobe after effects,
2. The person editing the mid air emergency used some plugins which I do not have access to and would require money to buy them,
3. We would have to recreate the space for every shot in the scene which will be really difficult.

I looked at some feature films which had air plane interiors to see how they had recreated that space. I found the visual effects of the air plane crash in Final Destination 5 and it involve's a lot of animation and set building which I think will be time consuming.

Nyle told us he had a studio in which we could film and his plans of recreating the interior involved having the seats and a plane poster and the final touches will be made in after effects.

I think we are not going to be able to make it work because to make the interior of the plane will be really hard & non of us have any experience of how to do it. Even if we tried to do it in after effects, getting the plugins & creating the air plane interior will be hard and I don't know how to do it. I tried to convince Nyle to change the location and use a train or coach but hi insisted we stick with the plane. This made us think of a plan B because we weren't convinced about how this idea would work.

We had a session with a few actors who wread the script and they give us feedback and how to improve it. They liked the idea of the awkward encounter of the girl and his old boyfriend but were be concerned about the plane setting. They suggested we use a train, bus or coach.

Reference

Final Destination 5. Visual Effects of Death: Airplane Crash (Special Feature) Full HD 1080p. (2011). [Online], Last accessed 09 May 2014 at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZcEGXEkHjo

Video Copilot. (2012). [Online], Last accessed 09 May 2014 at: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/mid_air_emergency/

GROUP + IDEAS

I found a group but had to to leave because we had worked together before for the Documentary project. I had problems in finding a group at first then I managed to find one. I'm working with Carrie Marples, Chris Kelly and Nyle Roberts.

Two ideas were presented in the group. The first one was from Nyle which was about an awkward encounter between a girl and her ex boyfriend and This meeting takes place in an air plane and there's a sudden twist at the end. Firstly I liked this idea in terms of the story and characters but the air plane concept wasn't a good idea. I went along with the idea because it was fully developed & I thought we could change the location but Nyle didn't want to.

The second idea was from Carrie's which was a teenage love story influenced by Submarine. She only had a plot summary & it was under developed. I liked the idea but because it was under developed I pre-fared Nyle's idea.

Treatment of Nyle's idea

Boyfriend/girlfriend on flight from Australia, approaching stop off at Kuala Lumpur.

3 characters, 2 of them we know immediately have a relationship of boyfriend and girlfriend. The third is treated as a stranger, with no initial obvious relationship to the others. There is a slight Michael Haneke, Luis Bunuel, influence with slightly surreal ambience. Also inspired by recent events in the news.

Jamie Palter, 25 aspiring artist, middle class but with alternative edge background, sensitive well rounded introvert, but popular. Teaches art part time at a young adults college. Born near Brighton but Living in Sheffield after Uni at Leeds. Met Lucy at Showroom cinema.

Lula Ormsford, 25 upper working class suburban background, studied dance at Uni. has known Jamie for 3 years. Working as a teacher in a modern progressive school. Studied in Cardiff, but returned to Sheffield. She’s a loyal, giving, trusting person.

Third passenger is Jack Kerrigal, 27, studied journalism at Uni. but now working for sports agency, up and coming career, appears ambitious, ruthless, has been in Far East on sport business, caught up in a complicated deal to get investment finance for a British Football Club. Male who is secretly unsure of himself, and afraid of commitment in relationships.

                          Scene 1- Interior 3 seats on a long haul flight.

Distant fixed point shot of the 3 seats. One seat occupied by anon man. Interior plane hum sound of flying, occasional voice announcements.

The plot revolves around 3 passengers on a plane, two obviously connected, in a confined space, and the relationship between them. Their lives are somehow thrown together, intertwined by the past, the present and the future. Is there is chance or fate involved in their meeting? What’s their connection?

They are all on a journey, but which journey. Are they going to somewhere or going from somewhere? Are they contented or frustrated? How susceptible are they when confronted with an unexpected event, and total uncertainty?

We see their dreams, giving a brief glimpse and an insight into their lives, their aspirations, pre-occupations, and their worries. We hear their conversations so that we can gauge the closeness or distance of their connection. We can guess their bonds and also their conflicts.

The idea is to leave a twist at the end, we discover that Lula was in fact the girlfriend of Jack when they were at Uni together. Jack left Lula pregnant and in love, and it was a very difficult time for her. Suddenly she is confronted with this person who left her scarred emotionally. Now 5 years later she has a new boyfriend, Jamie, a different type of man, not commitment phobic like Jack. But is she sure of that?

Just when we are concerned with their personal lives, there is actually a second twist in the very final seconds, an unexpected event occurs, leaving the viewer in an ambiguous, interrupted, surprised frame of mind. As in a Haneke film, the viewer is deliberately left to make his/her own mind up about the possible resolution.

For this idea, these were our roles

Director - Nyle Roberts

Producer - Carrie Marples

Cinematographer - Myles Chimutanda

Sound recordist - TBC

Editor - Myles Chimutanda

Sound Design - Chris Kelly

Because there were only 4 of us in the group, some of us had to take a double role. 

SEMESTER 2 - TASK 2 DRAMA

The task for this project is to create a 5 minute drama film which conveys the notion of 'Journey'. I'm really excited about this project and I want to be the camera operator or editor in this project.

FINAL PRESENTATION

We presented our documentary film and it was great. We prepared ourselves for the presentation and we all knew what to say in terms of our roles and contribution and about our ideas of the film. Our colleagues enjoyed it and our lecturers loved it. They liked the mood and style of the film and the pace of it. They liked the background music as well, which was done by Paul's friend Anna Hambleton. A few minor tweaks they suggested was to increase the volume of when Michaels talking and to hold some shots for a bit longer.  

Overall I'm pleased with our documentary film. If we had more time, we would have corrected the minor problems. I enjoyed the whole process of making the film and working with Michael. As a group we worked brilliant and i would like to work with them again in the future. 

SOUND EDITING

I helped Louise on some of the sound editing she did. On some of the sounds I recorded, you could a fridge in the background and this interrupted with the audio. Using Pro tools and sound track pro, we removed as much of the buzzing sound as we could. 

Using pro tools we played with the high and low frequency to try and remove as much out the unwanted sound. We moved the audio files to soundtrack pro if we needed to more sound reduction. By using these two software's we were able to removed the unwanted sounds but if listened very carefully, you could hear some of the buzzing the background.

TUTORIAL WITH LEE

When we came back from Liverpool, our director and editor reviewed the footage and informed us about what we had and what was missing. We had the interview that we wanted and a couple of interesting stories about Michaels life as a violin maker. In terms of audio, we had the sounds that we wanted but some bits of audio were missing and some of the sounds had a buzzing sound in the background which was either the fridge or heater in Michaels studio. 

We had a 1 hour tutorial with our lecturer and he offered us some guidance in terms of themes to take with our documentary. We made a rough cut which we presented to him to watch, which had different themes ranging from his personal life to a professional perspective. Our lecturer made us aware about the mood and style that we taking, which was a persona approach of Michaels life in the studio and all the wonderful stories he told us. 

Our lecturer saw some of the other shots we had and in some of them, there were camera shakes or the image was either blurred. He informed us that such shots make the audiences aware that this is a camera and they become less engaged in watching the documentary. He also commented about the sound and how some slight adjustments needed to be made such as volume and background noise. He told us to think about a sound track for our documentary and Paul (Producer) was already on top of it, talking to a friend of his weather she will play a song for us with a violin. 

We informed him that we were going back to Liverpool to film more about the personal life of Michael and to record the audio that we needed.